ODSTs of Reach
by Spartan 396
Summary: After several crushing defeats, the UNSC has tried to keep Reach a secret from the Covenant forces, but they have located it. While the SPARTAN II's defend one half, the ODSTs are sent in to protect the other half, and discover some startling secrets.
1. Prolgue

**ODSTs Of Reach**

**Prolgue**

_0950 Hours, August 21, 2544 (Military Calendar) / Archer System, Base Echo Five, planet Drandel II, Fire Base Charlie Bravo 1_

"All teams, stand by for contact!" Sergeant Puetz yelled into his com, and he saw four blue lights wink to life on his HUD. He opened a comm channel only his team used, "Blue one through four, meet up at fire base Charlie Bravo 2." _"Roger team leader, we are en-route to your position."_ the familar voice of his squadmate blared on the comm.

He quickly made his way to the fire base, reloading his MA5B Assault Rifle. The base came in his sights, the mounted machine guns glistened in the sun. He made it right in time to see the rest of his team make it to the base.

He pushed open the door and saw a couple of marines loading their weapons. The rest of his team came in seconds later.

"Listen up marines! We have to hold this base until evac arrives, their ETA is fifteen minutes, now it looks like those Covie bastards are at our doorstep, give them hell and do not give up! Do I make myself perfectly clear marines?"

The marines all replied in unison, "Sir! We get you, sir!"

"Good, now gear up!"

And all the marines jumped to their guns, attaching the chains to them, pulling back the loading lever. Almost as soon as everyone became ready they heard the familar squeak of Grunts, and the the footsteps of Grunts and Jackals. Some marines tapped their triggers nerviously.

"Sir, enemy contacts, lot of those bastards headin' our way!" a marine yelled.

"Okay marines, your time to give 'em hell, open up!" Sergeant Puetz barked.

Machine gun fire riddled the first line of Grunts, dropping them instantly, but there must of been atleast one thousand. They were cannon fodder, they purposfully threw themselves infront of a cannon just so their other commrades could make it through.

Sergeant Cirus loaded a Jackhammer rocket launcher and fired two shots, blasting the next two lines of Grunts almost one hundred feet. Shells sprayed the room as thousands of bullets sprayed into the Grunts. After the first lines, all Grunts, had been shot down, Jackals came in. They raised their shields and charged their pistols. A spray of plasma fire was launched towards the marines, scorching them outside of the base. One stray plasma shot flew right into the center of a marines chest, instantly blistering his flesh, he was now dead. Another marine moved up to take his gun, and right away opened fire upon the Covenant. They were ebbing closer almost every second, soon the would be over run. Sergeant Puetz moved up and opened fire. All of a sudden some static poured into Sergeant Puetz'z comm, he stopped firing and moved back. He could hear the voice nice and clear now.

_"Sergeant Puetz, this is Pelican dropship Echo 554, I am inbound on your position, hold tight. Air support is also on the way, three Longswords comin' in, they'll provide us cover."_ a pilot said into the com. "Roger that." Sergeant Puetz replied with.

He walked up to the gunners, now concentrated at the task at hand. "Keep firing, air support is on th..." and he was cut off by the sound of three Longsword fighters/bombers coming in.

The shrill sound of their engines got louder as they came closer, then he saw the three black figures fly over head, washing the sea of Grunts and Jackals with flame. The three Longswords then quickly arced in the sky and headed back.

"Good job soldiers! Our ride will be here to pick us up shortly." Puetz said with a sigh of relief, "Just stay on the bounce if those bastards decide to come back from the grave." They all chuckled to his small joke. Sergeant Puetz always lightened the mood some how with a small joke.

Sergeant Puetz walked outside, looking to the direction that the Pelican was supposed to come from, he saw the Pelican coming at it's full speed, which isn't very fast.

He keyed his com, "It's about time you showed up!" _"Hey, this bird isn't very fast."_ the pilot retorted, _"By the way, I'm Lieutenant Hawthorn, welcome aboard."_

Sergeant Puetz ran over to their base where the marines were sitting,two of them seemed fazed the most by the recent conflict.

"Okay, our ride's here, saddle up." Sergeant Puetz ordered.

They all got up and grabbed their gear and headed toward the dropship. Sergeant Puetz got on last, as usual, making sure every one of his squadmates got on. He put his weapons in the overhead storeage net, securing it to make sure it didn't fall, that had happened to him once, it hurt like hell. He moved over to the end of the Pelican and took his seat just as the dropship's engines roared to life. He felt the small amount of G**-**force as the Pelican made it's acsent.


	2. Chapter 1

**Section One**

**ODSTs**

**Chapter One**

_0850 Hours, October 13, 2527 (Military Calendar) / Epsilon Eridani System, Reach UNSC Military Complex, planet Reach, Camp Hathcock_

The warm sun of Reach shined in Corpral Puetz's eyes as he snapped into a crisp salute as his drill sergeant walked by. The sergeant inspected them all very throughly, making sure everything was in order.

"At ease men," the sergeant barked, "Everything seems to be in order."

All the soldiers slumped a little bit. Their drill sergeant, Sergeant Fetch, was all of their favorite sergeants, he let minor things slip, sometimes, which let the ODST trainies relax a little more.

"Okay, you know the drill, give me one hundred sit-ups!" he odered. They all replied with, "Sir! Yes sir!" and got onto their butts and started.

Corpral Puetz finished first out of all of them atleast twenty minutes later, beads of sweat dripped down his forehead. He had done sit ups for atleast two months now but he alway sweat after doing them.

He got up and walked to his sergeant, "Sir, I have finished my sit-ups, sir!"

"Damn soldier, you are the fastest here, do fifty more so you finish with the rest of your squadmates!" the sergeant replied with, a little amazed. "Sir. Yes sir!" Corpral Puetz replied. He got down and started his sit-ups again.

He finished his second set of sit-ups in ten minutes, still finishing them before some of his squadmates. He sat up as the sergeant passed out water to those who had finished, handing the first water to Corpral Puetz. Corpral Puetz gulped down the water, finishing it very quickly. After five minutes of rest the Sergeant ordered them to get up, they all got up in unison.

"Move to the pull up bars!" the sergeant ordered, they all moved out in a single file line to their pull up bars by the barracks. "Fifty pull ups, in...thirty minutes, do you think you can handle that?" the sergeant asked.

"Sir! Of course we can, sir!" they all said in unison.

"Lets see if you can, now hurry up!" and with that all of the soldiers grabbed their bars and started.

After their pull ups they continued doing exercises until they finished off with leg raises, they always finished with leg raises. Corpral Puetz finished first in only two of the other exercises, he wasn't the fastest at everything, a privite by the name of Skyler Cirus finished first most of the time. She was a very fast woman who completed most of the exercises first, and could run the fastest out of all of them. She had her hair cropped short to match the regulations that the UNSC had for hair length, no longer than eight centimeters.

"Okay," Sergeant Fetch barked after they finished their execises, "Now it is time for you to head over to your classes, move out."

They all trudged to their class where they had an AI teacher, Athena. She was a "dumb" AI who helped the scientists around the complex and taught the soldiers. They had been taught by her for over two months now, ever since their first day at the camp. They entered the usual room where they saw Athena's holograph appear and walk through the room.

"Alright, take your seats." the AI said in a calm voice.

They all found their usual seats and planted themselves on them.

"Today you will learn about the history of the legend of Troy and how the Greeks used deceptive tactics to conquer a military fortress. Then you will study pre-algebra and finally laungage," and as she said that a hologram of a big city surrounded by high walls appeared, and then holographic people appeared, along with ships sailing off the coast of the big fortress. This was one reason why this was Corpral Puetz's favorite lesson, he loved to see the great battles being fought and the way that people so primitave could come up with tactics that they still used today. And he watched as Athena continued with the lesson.

Corpral Puetz and all of the other students moved out of the classroom to be met by Sergeant Fetch waiting for them.

"Okay soldiers, 'playground' time," he said, and they all moved towards a training area that they referred to as the "playground." It was a big area that contained high wooden poles that their trainers sometimes put booby traps underneath, they ranged from stun grenades to spike grenades, teaching them to expect anything on the battlefield. After that there was a field of sharp gravel rocks, which they had to find a way across without getting themselves injured. Then there was a barbed wire field which they all had to crawl under while the instructors fired live rounds over their heads, which is very hard to do when they fire live ammo above you. Then there finally lay a course in which you have to climb a mess of pipes and ropes to get to an object, usually a bell. And every day that course seemed to get harder.

"Okay, listen up!" the sergeant barked, "Today you have to complete the course and 'de-fuse' a now live bomb, the first team who does that wins the same prize as usual, a meal. And the last team goes without dinner, as usual. Now get ready, you have three minutes to do so."

All of the soldier huddled together, in their usual teams. On Corpral Puetz's team there were three people, him, Privite Cirus, and his best friend at the camp, Corpral Harpper.

They got together and scanned the ground around the poles, "It looks like stun grenades," Corpral Harpper whispered to Cirus and Puetz. They nodded to show they understood.

"It looks like they go in a 'X' pattern, we'll have to jump over a few," Privite Cirus added. They nodded again. "Recruits, times up, go!" the sergeant yelled. They all started off as soon as the sergeant yelled that.

Puetz's team ran to the poles, letting a team who went straight for one of the stun grenade poles go ahead of them. They looked away as a brilliant blue flash stunned the team of three men. They continued on to the poles, climbing on the poles they thought didn't have anything underneath them. Another team next to them jumped onto a pole with a stun grenade underneath it and they were down on the floor. They jumped from one of the thin poles to the next, knowing that if they landed on one wrong one that they all might not make it past this part.

"Okay," Corpral Puetz began, "Jump over this pole, it should have a grenade underneath it."

But as he said that, a larger kid pushed right through, and stepped on the pole. Puetz, Harpper, and Cirus all instinctivly put their arms infront of their eyes, shielding them from the bright light.

The kid fell on the ground, convusing. Corpral Puetz quickly jumped to the next safe one. He landed on one foot, putting all of his weight on one spot, and the pole started to splinter. He quickly grabbed the pole infront of him to balance out his weight, but it was to late, the thin wooden pole collapsed under his weight. He was now falling towards a pole with a stun grenade under neath it. Just as he was about to hit the pole, two hands grabbed him from behind and pulled him up.

"That's what teams are for," Privite Cirus said with a smirk.

They finally got off the pole and headed towards the next part of the course, razor sharp gravel. This was a huge field filled with it, and sometimes the instructors put more nasty surprises. But they put less in there, but more powerful ones in there. This was also their lucky day, sometimes they were forced to walk across it in bare feet.

They quickly ran to the edge of the gravel field, and stopped, making it to the field in second place. They all scanned it for any signs of booby traps. This time the instructors hid them well, because they saw no signs of any traps. They slowly started off, knowing that the more vibrations that you made, the more likely any traps were to go off. They slowly inched towards the end, letting one team pass them right up, so they could see what kind of traps there was. There was a small flash this time, and the team went flying, it was only a blast grenade, very bad on this gravel when you landed. They continued on, making sure to follow the footsteps of the lead people who were having great luck. They made it to the other side just in time to see another team walk right into a mine.

"In all this time training, you'd think they'd learn to follow the paths of people who didn't get hurt?" Corpral Harpper said. They all chuckled.

They all headed towards the next part, the barbed wire field. And today it was different, auto-machine guns were firing rounds over their heads, not the usual instructors with their pistols. They all got down and started to slosh through the mud under the barbed wire, bullets zinging past their heads by mere centimeters. This might not seem like much, but it can be almost nerve wrecking to new recruits.

They all came out from under the barbed wire in unison, running towards the final objective, a maze of bars, pullies, and anything else that is hard to climb. They scanned the 'playground set' for the easiest way to get there, and found it.

"Okay," Corpral Puetz started, pointing his finger at objects, "We climb up there and climb onto the top of the 'set' and get to the pullie. From there we grab the pullie and pull ourselves down, got it?"

Harpper and Cirus nodded, and they began their climb. They reached the first part of the bars, seeing that the other team that had passed them up was already started, taking a longer way. They grabbed the first set of bars and pulled themselves up. They climbed until they got to the top of the 'Set' and looked around, many other teams had just made it to there and were starting to climb. They quickly focused on the task at hand, and looked for the pullie. They found it and headed towards it at full speed. They grabbed ahold of the rope pullie and swung down on it. They started to pull themselves across, seeing the final goal striaght ahead.

"This is weird isn't it?" Privite Cirus began, "Isn't this part a bit easy?" Cirus could see them ponder over this a moment.

"Lets just see what happens to us," Corpral Puetz suggested.

They took his suggestion and continued on. Dud bomb first. Corpral Puetz pressed a series of buttons, finishing when it made a small beep. They were first and were going to have dinner tonight.

They all trudged back to their barracks to take quick showers, and take a little brake before dinner, going to the 'Playground' was always tiring, and they needed rest, Sarge had something special for them to do tomorrow.

_"Drill Sergeant Fetch, please come to my office on the double,"_ Lieutenant Brents' voice beckond over Sergeant Fetch's comm. He keyed his comm and replied, "Right away sir." and headed off down the hall.

He found the lieutenant's door after walking through that hall and knocked on it.

"Come in Sergeant," he heard from inside the room.

He opened the door and entered the room slowly.

"Take a seat if you like sergeant," the lieutenant said. "That is okay sir, I perfer to stand," Sarge replied.

"Very well, suit yourself. Now, to the matter at hand. There is a reason why I called you. We have some new training exercises for your soldiers to get them combat ready, we need them to strike a rebel base."

"Sir, don't we have those, Spartans to do that work?" the sergeant questioned.

"Yes, we do, but they are doing it else where and are going through some 'changes' as Doctor Hasely put it. Now no more questions, get your troops up at 0500 hours and tell 'em to get ready for anything," Lieutenant Brents answered.

"Yes sir," Sergeant Fetch said and headed off.

Sergeant Fetch opened the door and headed off down the hall. _What will that exercise be?_ he wondered. But he just needed to follow orders. He continued down the hall thinking that over and over, trying to figure what. He knew it would be a combat exercise, so what else could it contain? Live ammo? Learning how to stay alive in the wilderness? It didn't matter now, he would find out soon enough.

He finally walked out of the building, _It seems every day that it gets darker earlier,_ he thought. He finally decided to get over to the mess hall and get some dinner, it sounded good tonight, turkey filled with stuffing, mashed potatoes covered in gravy and clam chowder soup. And to top off the meal, fudge drizzled in hot chocolate syrup. The thought of that made him walk a bit faster.

Corpral Puetz and all the other soldiers arrived at the mess hall just as the sun of Reach started to set. He walked in, entering with his other friends, and right away the smell of food caught his nose. He looked at the cans of food sitting on a table, it look especially good. He hurried over to grab a plate, but as he got there, a regular marine pushed him out of the way and cut in the line.

"Hey," Corpral Puetz said in a booming voice, "Why don't you get back in line!?"

"Because I don't want to," the marine retorted, thinking it was a question.

"That wasn't a question marine! Get to the back of the line now!" Corpral Puetz barked.

The marine had a hint of fear in his face, but held his ground, "No, I won't, you will wait."

"Marine, I will not wait for you!"

The marine threw a punch at Corpral Puetz, Puetz ducked swiftly, kicking the marines legs, sending him to the ground. The marine got up, some fight still in him, this time he threw another punch, taking caution not to leave himself open. Corpral Puetz grabbed his fist and flipped him to the ground.

Right as the marine was flipped to the ground Drill Sergeant Fetch stepped into the room, looking forward to a good meal. But he saw a marine being whipped to the ground by one of his soldiers. _Wow,_ he began to think,_ the lieutenant will be surprised at how combat ready they will be._

"Break it up recruits!" he bellowed. All the soldiers stopped what they were doing and stood rigid. "Corpral Puetz," he started to ask, "What was this about?"

"Sir, he refused to move back in line after moving in front of everybody, pushing me out of the way, sir!" Corpral Puetz answered.

"Did you tell the marine to move?"

"Yes sir!" "Did he move?" the sergeant said, already knowing the answer.

"No sir,"

"Marine, what rank are you?" the sergeant asked, glaring at the marine.

"Sir, I am a privite, sir!" the marine answered, a little confused.

"Well then," the sergeant concluded, "You disobeyed an order from a higher rank, I think that what Corpral Puetz did to you should be punished, but you walked into it marine. Both of you, run two laps around the mess hall, without your shirts off, carring your sacks of gear, now! Sergeant, spot these two men!" the sergeant commanded pointing towards a sergeant sitting down and eating.

The two took off their shirts and put on their gear and headed outside where the sergeant was waiting for them. It might not seem like much, but it gets cold on Reach at night. The two ran laps around the mess hall, finishing them warmer than when they had entered the mess hall. They reentered the mess hall to find almost everyone done with their meals. Corpral Puetz let out a small sigh and went to eating.


	3. Chapter 2

**Chapter Two**

_0500 Hours, Octorber 14, 2527 (Military Calendar) / __Epsilon Eridani System, Reach UNSC Military Complex, planet Reach, Camp Hathcock Barracks_

"Wake up! Get up now soldiers!" Drill Sergeant Fetch yelled at the sleeping ODSTs.

Some of them stirred while others shot up in their beds. Corpral Puetz opened his eyes, everything was still blury, he rubbed his eyes, nothing was blury anymore. He sat up and got out of his bed and walked over to the ice cold showers.

He got out of the shower before anyone else, if there is one thing that wakes you up in the morning, it's a cold shower. He walked over to his clothes and got dressed, his uniform was battered and a little discolored due to all of the training they had been doing. Some people were just getting into the showers now, slowing the day up.

"Okay," began Sergeant Fetch, "We have some real combat exercises for you to do today, so get over to the briefing hall and you will see your armor and learn what you have to do. Any questions?"

No one raised their hand.

"Good, now move it out, double time!"

And with that all of the soldiers moved out in two lines behind the sergeant.

They walked through the crisp morning air, walking up anyone who was still asleep. The cold air filled Corpral Puetz's nostils as he inhaled deeply, and he immediatly realised what they were going to do. _Finally, an actual combat exercise,_ he thought happily.

After several minutes of walking at a fast pace, the briefing hall came into view. The briefing hall was a a big ampitheater. On the inside each row of seats was higher than the next. And in the middle was a table for any officals that needed to brief the soldiers that were going on a certain mission.

They all got in and took a seat on the hard chairs. In the middle sat Lieutenant Brents, Sergeant Fetch and one more unknown officer, but by all of the medals and ribons on his uniform, you could tell he was atleast lieutenant or higher. As soon as all of them saw the man they all saluted in unison.

"At ease soldiers," the officer said, "I am 2nd Lieutenant Hazick, and I am the one who put this little 'test' out for you. Today you all will be dropped out in the forest, one at a time, and you will be armed with and MB5A Assault Rilfe modified to shot paint pellets. You will work as a team and take out all the enemies that get in your way. Then you will procede to find your ride back to base. If one of you does not make it to the 'dust off' location, then to bad for you. Now you will have one thing that will help you, our new modified armor."

As he said that a man walked in pushing a suit that was on a hanger. It was all black and consisted of a chest plate, upper arm plates, shin guards, and all terrian boots. And underneath it you wore a camoflauged body suit. And on it it had a black helmet with a blue visor. That helmet contained a miniature computer and an upgraded thing known as a HUD, or Heads Up Display.

Corpral Puetz and the rest of the soldiers stared at their new armor in awe. They were actually going to wear combat armor

"Alright, your armor is integraded with some of our latest technology. We have improved coms, improved HUDs, hell, pretty much everything is improved. And from now on, you are all, offically, ODSTs. Now go prove that you are capable of doing a mission, move your asses out of here!"

All of the newly cristened ODSTs got up and moved out of the buildig, everyone of them excited to do a combat training exercise.

They got out of the building into the cold morning air of Reach. The sun barely poked over the hills in the distance, as if they were teasing the sun. They followed their sergeant to a building where he said that they were to suit up, by themselves.

"How can we suit ourselves up," Corpral Puetz overheard an ODST saying, "we haven't ever even woren the stuff."

As if Sergeant Fetch heard from the front of the line he said, "You'll all do it, you'll all have to do it whether you like it or not."

They quickly moved to a crate containing their armor. Corpral Puetz reached the crate second, only beaten to it by Skyler. He picked up his body suit and examined it. It was a special material designed to keep you warm in the coldest conditions and cold in the warmest conditions. It was also designed to be able to stop some knife attacks. He looked at this piece one more time before putting it on.

After several confusing minutes of trying to put it on he finally got it. He gave a little sigh as the last part slid onto his arm. He then proceded to put his chest plate on. This bulky piece of armor was made marine tough, meaning that is could block a few rounds from a standard issue side arm of the UNSC. He slipped that on with relative ease, following with his shoulder and upper arm guards, then thigh guards, shin guards, boots, wrist protectors, and finally his gloves.

After a few minutes of putting his armor on and walked to Drill Sergeant Fetch and asked him to inspect it. The sergeant complied on walked around him looking for kinks.

After atleast a minute or so of looking at his armor the sergeant finally said, "Well son, I don't know much about this armor, but it sure as hell looks like you did it right. Good job, now grab your helmet and procede to the Pelican Dropship."

Corpral Puetz walked over to the crate where he had gathered his gear and started to headed over to the Pelican when the sergeant grabbed his shoulder.

"Corpral Puetz, you have shown extremely good leadership values, and I have made you a sergeant and you are to be the team leader of this mission. Good luck."

Sergeant Puetz looked a little stunned and finally replied, "Thanks sarge, I won't let you down."

"I know that you won't, now move it out double time." Sergeant Fetch ordered.

And with that he headed back towards his quarters in the marine barracks.

Sergeant Puetz hurried over to the Pelican Dropship gleefully. As he hopped in the dropship for his first time. He was handed his weapon by a crew man. He grabbed hold of the weapon with pride. Almost as soon as the dropship's engines started to roar a lone officer leaped into the Pelican andd stood in the center.

"Okay," the officer began, "We have thirty minutes until we arrive at our destination, so lemme' explain this as clearly as possible."

And with that he handed out maps to the fifteen ODSTs in the dropship.

"Look at your maps carefully, as you shall see, there is a red circle on the map. That is your extraction point. Also as you can see, the only way to get to that point is to go through a narrow valley, which possibly could be filled with hundreds of snipers. You will have to find your way through there. You are allowed to possibly link up with the rest of your team, if you find them, and get to the dropship together. Now, this is all I will tell you, any questions?" the officer concluded. No one raised their hand.

Sergeant Puetz and all of his other squadmates glared at their maps intensly, trying to figure any landmarks that they could look for. Sergeant Puetz noticed one in particular, a river. There were hundreds of rivers in this area of Reach, but this one seemed to stick out. He prodded Corpral Harpper in the shoulder to get his attention.

"Kyle," he whispered, "See that odd looking river on the map?"

Kyle nodded.

"Good, now tell the person next to you this and tell them that we should all meet up there. Also tell them to pass this on to as many other poeple as possible."

Kyle nodded again and leaned over to the next person. Sergeant Puetz saw all of his other squadmates do the same, and soon all of the ODSTs in the dropship knew the plan.

After atleast twenty-five more minutes of flying the officer spoke again.

"Okay, time for drop. Saddle up your bags and drop on my mark. Team leader first, that means you Puetz."

Sergeant Puetz heard the gears of the engine whine as the engines angled to bring the Pelican so low that a drop wouldn't hurt them. Sergeant Puetz got up, put his helmet on his head and headed toward the opening. He looked at Kyle and nodded, Kyle nodded back in responce. Sergeant Puetz turned around and jumped out. _Jump, tuck, and roll,_ he thought.

He landed in a soft spot of dirt and got up after his brief roll on the ground. He shook off a slight pain that was in his left shoulder. He put his hand on his back, his rifle was still strapped to him. He grabbed the rifle off of his back and leveled it with his shoulder. He got on his knees and made a quick scan of his surroundings. This area was clear. He got up and moved toward the direction he last knew the river to be in.

He ran from cover to cover, knowing if his training taught him anything, always expect nasty surprises. He stopped at a bush and swept the area with his rifle. A quick look had shown him that he walked in the right direction, the river was dead ahead of him. He walked over to it, taking cover behind a rock before noticing his squadmate, Privite Jenson. To his dismay, his friend and teammate was on the other side of the river. Sergeant Puetz skuddled up from his cover and ran to the edge of the river.

"How do you suppose we get you across?" Sergeant Puetz inquired.

"Dunno," Jenson began to reply, "but we should find something that, if any more members of our team landed on this side, could get across on."

"I think you're right." Sergeant Puetz agreed.

They both scoured the river enbankment for anything to cross with, finally finding a fallen log. It was perfectly lain across the water, as if someone wanted them to cross right there. But they didn't waste time speculating, they quickly ran to the log.

Privite Jenson grabbed a branch on the log and pulled himself upon the log, while Sergeant Puetz reached out with his hand and tried to grab his mate's hand.

Their hands almost met when suddenly the log moved. Jenson looked around worried.

"Get off that log," Sergeant Puetz screamed.

But Jenson hesitated-which is a very bad thing in a situation like this. In that moment of hesitation the log rolled on it's side, tossing Jenson into the fridged morning waters of Reach. He landed in front of the log, and no sooner than he landed had the log decided to roll over on top of him, pushing him under water.

"Shit," Jenson tried to say, but in doing so filled his mouth with water.

He had gotten his chest plate stuck on a branch of the log. The log slowly stopped rolling and turned to face straight down the river. Privite Jenson looked around, trying to find something to help free himself with, with no avail. As water started to fill his helmet, he felt the log jerk to a sudden halt, and felt his feet rub against something, the log had gotten stuck.

Sergeant Puetz looked frantically to find his submerged friend. He had earlier watched helplessly as his friend was dragged under and over a log as it rolled with the current. But now this was worse, his friend was completely submerged under water now.

He followed the log to where it finally stopped, then he saw the distorted image of Jenson and reached out into the water. He felt the hard armor on his friends arm and pulled.

He pulled Privite Jenson out of the water, he was sobbing wet. Privite Jenson pulled off his helmet and shook his head, making water splash onto Puetz's visor. Sergeant Puetz grabbed the helmet from his hands and held it.

"Thanks Puetz, you saved my life." the privite said thankfully.

"That's what friends are for." Sergeant Puetz replied.

"Atleast you didn't lose you Assault Rifle." Sergeant Puetz said, a little sarcastically. But it was true, the magnetic field still held the rifle in place.

"Yeah, but I don't know if it still works." Jenson retorted, not at all happy to hear sarcasm right now.

Almost as if out of nowhere a voice came, "Did I miss they party?"

Sergeant Puetz pulled his rifle from it's magnetic sling and shouldered it.

"Who said that?" he inquired.

"Me of course." the disembodied voice stated matter-of-factly.

And with that Privite Cirus stepped out of the bushes.

"What happened here?" she asked.

"I'll tell you later," Puetz replied, "Lets just try to find the rest of our squad."

"Yes sir." she said.

As if hearing their conversation, almost all of the rest of their squad popped out from their hidding spots and moved towards Puetz, Cirus, and Jenson.

After a quick head count, Puetz discovered a soldier was missing.

"Has anyone seen Corpral Harpper?" he asked.

"Yes," a voice replied, "I'm right here." and Kyle walked up to Sergeant Puetz.

"Okay, that's everyone, lets move out," he ordered. And they quickly began their trudge toward their LZ.

Thet trekked for several minutes before coming upon the valley that lead to their dropship location.

"Al'ight," Sergeant Puetz began, "See if half of our squad can break off, and then they can split into two groups, each should try to climb each side of the valley. They will knock out any snipers that happen to be there, we will continue on, taking out any hostiles in this valley. Is that understood?"

They all nodded their heads except for Cirus. Sergeant Puetz was about to ask her what she didn't understand when a green light winked on in his HUD. He blinked with surprise.

"Cirus, did you do that?" he asked.

"I think so," she responded, "I think it is called an acknoledgement light."

"Hmmm," Sergeant Puetz pondered, "Everyone, from here on in, we use that to say we understand eachother. But first, where is that button?"

"Well sir, I think that it is less of a button, but more of something that our neural implants do." Cirus said.

"Okay, did everyone hear that?"

And ninteen lights winked to life in his HUD.

"Good, now lets move out!" and with that they started out.

Half of the squad fell to the back of the formation, splitting in two and each started their semi-hard climb up the slopes of the valley.

Privite Jenson, who was leading one of the teams who was to climb one side of the valley, gripped a rock on top. He pulled himself up to the very top, his team following closely. This hill was all smooth Granite, but their new suits had enhanced traction on their boots, reassuring Jenson somewhat. He moved to the biggest rock he could find and pulled out his binoculars that he always kept with him, they always somehow came in handy.

He peered through them, looking for any movment, or anything that could give a sniper away. He spotted something, it was glistening in the sun, a scope from a sniper. He thought about telling a runner to go tell the team in the valley of the sniper, but as this thought appeared in his mind, words scrolled across his heads up display.

_/Establishing connection with team leader/_

_/Connection established/_

_/Team leader answering communication/_

_"Who is on the line?" _the voice of Sergeant Puetz said over the comm.

"Sir, Privite Jenson calling in sir. I have spotted a sniper. at your Ten o'clock. Shall we procede to take him out?"

"_Yes Jenson, take that sniper out ASAP."_

"Yes sir."

And as he said that, the comm channel shut off.

_/Connection closed/_ rolled across his visor.

He proceded with his team to the location of the sniper. They silently crept up on the sniper and hit him in the back of the head. The sniper wouldn't suffer any brain damage, just some pain.

He reached over and took the sniper rifle. He pulled out the clip to see if it was loaded, it was, with paint pellets. He handed the sniper rifle to his best shot, Privite Mitchell.

Privite Mitchell grabbed his new rifle happily. _Finally, a real rifle,_ he thought. He leveled it with his shoulder and scanned the area quickly before following the rest of his team.

Sergeant Puetz looked dead ahead, and thought that he could see a clearing. He told his team to halt with his fist, making a fist and putting it in the air. They all halted. He pointed at his people with the best eye sight and moved his finger, indicating for them to look around. They scanned around throughly, spotting no one. Sergeant Puetz than scanned the area himself. He saw nothing. He motioned his team to move forward but keep low.

Sergeant Puetz turned around as he heard an ODST make a muffled scream as a paint bullet hit him in the chest. He motioned for his people to take imediate cover. As they all scattered for cover a paint pellet exploded above Sergeant Puetz's head. He looked in the direction of where it came from and saw his enemy. He opened a frequency to a scout team on that side of the valley.

"This is team leader, I have spotted a boggey, over."

_"Roger that team leader, we have spotted him to and are about to take him out. Over"_

He heard a small scream as the sniper fell to the ground, out cold. He got out of his cover and moved out, the rest of his team seeing that, followed suit.

"When do you think those troopers will get here?" a lance corpral marine asked.

"Oh, soon, I suppose." the same officer said who had briefed the ODSTs on the Pelican.

The officer walked up to the pilot and asked for one of his cigars. The pilot agreed happily, hoping that the officer would put a good word in for him. The officer, Petty Officer Poland, lit the cigar and leaned on the dropship parked behind him.

He looked around at the other men standing there, "They'll be here soon, or they won't be here at all." he said with a little smirk.

Privite Jenson looked up, he could see the Pelican Dropship now, they were close. He magnified to zoom on his newly attained sniper rifle scope to x10. He looked at the officer who had briefed them's face. He wondered if he was going to be a friend or foe to his team. He keyed his comm to Sergeant Puetz. The familar words rolled across his HUD.

_"Jenson? What is the matter this time? After taking out five snipers I'd think that there would be no more." _Sergeant Puetz said with a slight chuckle.

"Well sir," the privite resonded, "I see out objective and have identified three targets. I advise you to be ready when you come in contact with them. I have not identified them as hostile or not, be advised, Jenson out."

Jenson hoped that the team leader took his warning, it could mean failure or success of the mission. He looked down the slope and saw that the team had raised their weapons. Atleast they had heeded his warning.

Sergeant Puetz walked up ahead of his team, he saw their ride as clear as day. He motioned his team forward, but kept his gun steady. He didn't want to walk into a a trap unprepared.

He walked up to a leading officer followed by the rest of his team.

"Sir, we are the team of ODSTs, we are ready for dust off." Puetz said.

"Looks like you are missing half of your platoon," the petty officer remarked.

Sergeant Puetz raised two fingers in the air and the rest of his squad rose out of their hiding spots, all holding their stolen rifles.

"Well, it seems that you have indeed not lost half of your squad. Climb aboard." the officer said, almost amazed that he hadn't noticed the soldiers in the bushes.

Sergeant Puetz climbed aboard the Pelican along with the rest of his team. As the last of them climbed aboard the dropships engines roared to life. It was a mission well done.


End file.
